Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1887-12-03

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seclusion and surrounded it with illusions; it
never looked to be exactly what it was; the
| traveller who saw it from the North ridge
apparently at his feet in descending found
himself separated from it by mile long
abyss and a rushing river; those who sought
] it by seeming direct trail at the end of
all hour lost sight of it completely, or,
abandoning the quest and rctracing their
steps, suddenly came upon the gap through
which it was entered. That which from the
ridge appeared to be copse of bushes be-
] side the tiny dwelling were trees 800 feet
! high; the cultivated lawn before it. which
might have been covered by the travellers
handkerchief, was a field of 900 acres
! The house itself was long, low, irregular
structure, chiefly of roof and veranda, pict-
uresquely upheld by rustic pillars of pine.
with the bark still adhcring, and covered
with vines and trailing roses. Yet it was
evident that the coolless produced by this
vast extent of cover was more than the ar
chitect, who had planned It under the irfu-
ence of staring and bewIldering sky, had
trustfully conceived, for it had to be miti-
gated by blazing fires in open hearths when
the thermometer marked 100 degrees in the
| field beyond. The dry, restless wind that
continually rocked the tall masts Of the
pines with sound like the distant sea, while
it stimulated outdoor physical exertion and
defied fatigue, left the sedentary dwellers in
these attitudes chilled i'll the shade they
courted, or scorched them with heat when
they ventured to bask supinely in the SUM-
White muslin curtains at the French win
dows, and rugs, skins and heavy furs dis
persed in the interior with certain other
charming but incongruous details of furni-
ture, marked the inconsistencies Of the eli
mate.
There was a coquettish indication Of this
! in the costume of Miss Kate Scott as she
stepped out on the veranda that morning.
A mans broad -brimmed Panama hat, partly
unsexed by twisted, gayly colored scarf,
but retaining enough character to give
piquancy to the pretty curves of the face
beneath, protected her from the sun; red
flannel shirt-another spoil from the enemy
and thick jacket shielded her from the
austerities of the morning breeze. But the
next inconsistency was peculiarly her own
Miss Kate always wore the freshest and
| lightest OF white cambria skirts, without the
least reference to the temperature. To the
practical sanatory ranaenstrano-s of h-r
brother-i -in-law, and to the conventional
criticism of her sister, she opposed the same
| defense: "How else is one to tell when it is
summer in this ridiculous climate? And
then, woolen is stuffy, color draws the sun,
and one at least knows when one is clean or
dirty" Artstically the result was far from
! unsatisfactory. 1t was pretty figure under
the somber pines against the gray granite
and the stcely sky, and seemed to lend the
yellowing fields from which the flowers had
already fled floral relief Of color. I do not
think the few masculine wayfarers of that
locality objected to it; indeed, some had
betrayed an indiscreet admiration, and had
curiously followed the invitation of Miss
Kate's warmly colored figure until they had
encountered the invincible indifference of
Miss Kates cold gray eyes With these
manifestations her brother-in-law did not
concern himself; he had perfect confidence
in her unqualified disinterest in the neigh.
boring humanity, and permitted her to
wander in her solitary picturesqueness, or
accompanied her when she rode in her dark
green habit, with equal freedom from
anxiety.
| For Miss Scott, although only co. had
already subjected most of her maidenly illu-
sions to mature critical analyses. She had
voluntarily accompanied her sister and
mother to California, in the earnest hope
1 that nature contained something worth say
ing to her, and was disappointed to find she
had already discounted its value in the pages
Of books She hoped to find vague free
dom in this unconventional life thus opened
| to her, or rather to show others that she
knew how intelligontly to appreciate it, but
as yet she was only able to express it in the
one detail of dress already alluded to. Some
of the men, and nearly all of the women, she
had met thus far, she was amazed to find,
valued the conventionalities she believed she
despised, and were voluntarily assuming the
chains she thought she had thrown off. III
/ stead of learning anything from them, these
children of nature had bored her with eager
questionings regarding the civilization she
had abandoned, or irritated her with crude
she had written to friend in Boston, "my
calling on Sue Murphy, who remembered the
Donner tragedy, and who once shot grizzly
that was prowlmg round her cabin, and
think of her begging me to lend her my sack
for a pattern, and wanting to know if polo
nays were still worn" She remembered
more bitterly the romance that had tickled
her earlier fancy, told Of two college friends
of her brother-in-law's who were living the
| perfect life" in the mines, laboring in the
bitches with copy of Homer in their pockets
and writing letters of the purest philosophy
under the free air Of the pines. How, COM
ing unexpectedly on them in their Arcadia,
the party found them unpresentable through
dirt, and thenceforth unknowable through
domestic complications that had filled their
Arcadian cabin with half-bred children.
Much of this disillusion she had kept
! within, her own heart from a feelino of